


A Boy and His Wolf

by shiroakuma



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Werewolf Trevelyan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-24 09:11:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7502598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiroakuma/pseuds/shiroakuma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He used to dream of that frightful night in the woods many years back, see the yellow eyes shinning among the dark green and feel the stink of sharp claws embedded into his skin. Now, the nightmares persist but have taken the form of exploding green light and the never ending screams of his family.<br/>-Major spoilers for the whole game.<br/>-On HIATUS</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The monster in the woods

 

A boy named Conri, age seven, with hair made up of crimson curls covering his slightly pointy ears and big round eyes, entered the woods with his hand holding his older brother's. The northern trees in these woods were like they were planted by the giants, tall and scary looking, almost, if not as tall as his brave brother whose hand the young boy refused to let go. A few small animals run amok beside them; a couple of rabbits and a fox. He almost shrieked when he saw them but he kept on going with his brother's urge. Despite his fear of the woods, his steps did not falter after that, even when the weapon slung over his shoulder weighed heavy at times. After all, this place was where he was supposed to become a man, or so said his father in that intimidating voice, observing and judging him while looking impossibly like a god walking among mere mortals. So he acted brave for his brothers and his mother. He acted brave for his future self and his family's name.

The woods got darker by the minute as he and his brother walked hand in hand. His brother's eyes possessed a kindness which he had inherited from their mother along with golden flocks of hair. He also had their father’s beak like nose and his fighting skills. He was kind and brave. He charmed every person he met and made every head turn towards him when he entered the room even though he was barely even an adult. He also fought as if the grace of the Maker had touched him in birth, never missing a shot of the arrow or the swing of a blade. He was the perfect son any parent would be proud of.

On the other hand, Conri had none of those abilities. His small hands failed to lift a sword, his shaky legs made it impossible for him to aim a bow and he couldn't even carry a shield on his arm. He idolized and worshipped his brother like he was Andraste herself, yet he didn't want to be like him. He didn't care; he was going to be a scholar like his uncle.

Wisdom comes with experience and study, you may not possess the strength to carry a sword but if trained right, your tongue can be made to cut more enemies than any blade, his mother had said. Conri believed her but she still wasn’t able prevent the family tradition from commencing. Conri had to kill his first, and what he hoped to be the last prey on his name day in the woods of their estate.

He got a sense of pride in the knowledge and expectation of his father's approval which would come at the end of this endeavour. He got his brother to watch his back and he soon come to realize that he had nothing to fear from the dark woods.

He was wrong. When the sun went down and the full moon was the only light left to shine, his brother lit a small torch. This is how the Trevelyan's hunt, he whispered, we are the masters of these woods and our fear. We do fear it not neither during the day nor during the darkest hours of the night.

He should have been. He should have feared the night with the silver moon shining. He should have feared the way all animals had fled the woods and the only sounds left were the rustling of the leaves and a low growl. He should have feared the glowing eyes which came out of the woods and dragged him by the ankle, all the way to the nearest cave and then, returned for Conri.

Conri was afraid out of his mind. Frozen on the spot as the giant wolf stood on his two feet and reached down with sharp claws glistening with his brother's blood. He didn't feel the slash across his shoulder or the bite on his leg until much later and his small, shaky feet run away as fast as possible.

A boy named Conri, age seven, with hair dump with sweat and yellow glowing eyes, left the woods with his and his older brother's blood on his hands.

*

Conri, age seven plus twenty-eight days, shook hard on his bed. His nanny was by his bed side in a flash, but there was little she could do to stop the tremors. The rest of the household was informed of his sudden illness immediately; the Bann of the house, his father, was disinterested, no wonder he still blamed his brother's death on his incompetence. The young masters, his brothers, were uncaring and even the Lady of the house, his mother was still grief stricken over the death of her favourite and refused to acknowledge his distress.

Conri was in and out of consciousness all night and in between seizures, when he regained his senses, he would look around his empty room and wish that he hadn't regained it; wished that he hadn't survived that dreaded night that no one believed what he had seen. He wished that it was him who had been taken by the wolf instead of his beloved brother.

Conri cried to sleep that night and woke up with the glassy eyes of his nanny staring at him from the floor and her blood on his hands. By all means, he had slain his first prey, although a month later than expected and he had become a real Trevelyan.

*

During his next name day, Conri was given a second chance at redemption after spending four days during every full moon for eleven months, inside the deepest, darkest dungeon the family owned. No food, no baths, no privileges. The rest of the time was spent in his room. His body was suffering more than ever and despite having lost the shakiness in his legs, Conri never felt weaker in his all too short life.

Unlike last time, his mother didn't appear at the gate entrance to kiss him good luck, neither did his brothers nor his father showed their faces as he was handed a bow and arrow and a dagger. He was told he was to be dropped off at a safer location, a bit far away from the estate so that he was not seen let out of his room.

The ride behind the cart, under the cover, took longer than anticipated but he did not complain, nor did he make a single sound during the whole ride. His appointed guardian even had to check the young boy and make sure he had not fled while he was focused on the road a few times.

When he was finally let out, Conri did not recognize these woods at all, but it felt familiar to him. The darkness as the night settled in, the tall trees that dwarfed him and the rustling of the leaves were all too similar to before. He was told that he would be taken back at the crack of the dawn and that he better hunt something edible this time around.

Conri did not smile at the dark humour but he appreciated being given two leather bags, one filled with water, the other with bread and cheese. He knew for certain then that this was going to be his last night as a Trevelyan. He flipped his hair back, revealing the pointy ears, earning a gasp from the old man. He put on his older brother's big boy smile and took the bags and his weaponry with a strength no normal boy of his age could posses. Eyes glowing a dark shade of yellow, and without casting a single glance back, he walked deeper into the woods.

 

-*-

"For the last time, tell me why we shouldn't kill you right now!" screamed a woman's voice and Conri jerked awake. He wildly looked around and it took only a few seconds for his eyes to adjust them to the darkness of the dungeon he was chained in. It took only another second for panic to settle in and he threw himself backwards, only stopping once his head hit the bars behind him.

He was imprisoned once again. Thrown into the dungeon by his family, left to rot by his father, forgotten by his mother... He took a deep breath, no it wasn't right. He wasn't in the estate room or the woods; it was far too bright for either even if he was in some sort of a dungeon. That had happened so long ago that he wasn't going to be affected by it any more. He almost managed to calm himself down when the hilt of a sword hit him in the face. A blow so strong that it would have knocked down any grown man, but it only helped aggravate Conri. His attacker, a short haired human woman, did not stand a chance when Conri twisted his head, growled with the ferocity of a grown wolf and jumped on her with his full weight. The sudden fear appear in her eyes was almost too good to enjoy. There was no time though, he lifted his knee up to break the plank in half, pulled his hands out of the shackles and watched as the shock on her face became comical before he lifted the slightly taller woman from the ground like she was nothing more than an empty sack and threw her at her guards.

He wasted no time in banging heads and knocking guards out as he made his way out of the dungeon. He could hear the yells he left behind, and count the number of hostiles approaching him. Their sounds suddenly got cut off as he reached the final gate. Curious he held his ground and as suspected soon with his wolf like ears he heard a faint heart beat closing in on him.

He ran a hand through his short red hair and allowed himself a smile before he confronted his silent attacker with grabbing the arrow she threw his away. What he had not expected was the small bomb dropped at his feet. He cursed before flinging his body out of the way of what appeared to be a smoke bomb. The white gas released assaulted his eyes and nose, preventing him from using all his senses but his ears were still wide open. So when the rogue woman attached from behind he was able to grab her arm and threw her too across the room, and out of the fort.

Conri's speeding heart rate returned to normal as soon as he stepped outside. First he took a small then a larger breath and the world started to make sense again. He observed his surroundings in order to find a way out and return back home. He was kept in a fort of sorts, he noticed and although there were a few people around, they all kept their distance from him; their hearts beating frantically with fear ebbed in their eyes. It was then he noticed the constantly increasing pain and the green glow in his left hand.

With a flare of pain shooting up in his hand he couldn't stop himself from dropping down on his knees. As if the world was not done screwing him over, his own hand was trying to kill him. He felt hot tears forming in his eyes and his own wolf blood attempting and failing to heal the wound. The green sparkle kept on diminishing and flaring up, accompanied with an unbearable pain.

Conri fisted his hand and throw the strongest punch he could muster to the nearest wall, he had no choice but to try and numb his hand so that he could keep his werewolf blood from boiling and taking over his consciousness. As he felt the wall of the fort breaking apart along with the bones of his left hand, he was able to focus on the more human kind of a pain.

It wasn't easy, controlling his feral side when he was hurt but he had had experience over the course of fifteen years. He had survived all these years, survived in the woods. He had learned to control his inner monster and he wasn't about to lose it now. He had encountered many things in the woods but the green glow that was completely new. He had no idea what it was or why he had it. Or who in the Dread Wolf were these people who kidnapped him?

By the time, he managed to stop his blood from trying to heal the green glow; his hand was throbbing with a dull ache. The world was back in focus and he managed to let out a relieved sigh as he put his back onto the fractured wall. He would have sat there happily too, if not for the giant green crack in the middle of the sky.

* * *

 


	2. The elves of the forest

 

After how long, young Conri did not know, he realized that there was no redemption to be found in the woods. There was however, danger lurking at every corner and wet, cold winters waiting ahead of him. He had learnt some survival tricks from his brother, like how to start a fire or how to gut a prey and the rest, he had to teach himself. He found out that the emptied roots of the oldest trees provided the best covers from the rain but they also smelled of decay the worst. He almost made fatal mistakes like eating poisoned berries but was saved when another animal made the mistake of eating them first. Besides the basics, Conri realized that he had no problem seeing in the dark. Back in the dungeon, there had been nothing but grey walls to stare during his long, painful nights, but out here in the woods, it was another story. The hundred different tones of green and brown, the never ending songs of the birds and the scents of fresh rain and earth alone were enough to mesmerize the young boy. There was a beauty to the woods that he never thought possible.

He became adept at surviving in the woods, avoiding larger animals like the bears and hunting for the smaller ones, like the rabbits. He was faster and stronger than he was back in the estate, now that he ate almost regularly; sometimes he even bothered to cook them over a small fire pit. He became feral sometimes and it scared of the birds. His teeth would not feel right when he was like that. His fingertips would itch and his crimson hair would feel longer than usual. He wasn't really scared of this new form he acquired because he really had no one left to hurt anymore.

There was this one time, during the half transformation, that he happened to be gazing into the deep waters of a stream. It had scared him shitless when he saw the eyes of the monster wolf looking back at him from the stream. It had taken him hours of running and exhausting himself to calm down. It was no surprise though as for the rest of the night the amber glow haunted him.

Regardless, in time, he embraced the growing monster inside him as well. He had no chose. He was forsaken. He was thrown out and left to die but he refused to crawl up some cave and die a pathetic death. What would his brave and kind brother think of Conri if he did that? No, he was to survive, survive he did even if it meant becoming the monster that brought such misery upon him.

*

One day in between his 9th and 10th name days, out of the blue Conri came face to face with another boy with sharp ears and a pale face. Elves, a voice in his head supplied. He didn't care. He dropped down on all fours and sneered at the boy until he cried and ran away. A few days after that, a group of pointy eared men appeared outside of his lair causing him to crawl back inside the cave while growling all the time. Fear struck him like a whip in an instant and he felt his body respond in kind. Claws shot out of his fingers and his bones cracked. His young body twisted with a gruesome sound and before he was aware of it, he was charging at the elves. He didn't get too far though. One of them, an elderly elf with a staff, stood tall and brave like his brother. casting a spell with a conviction he had not seen before. Blue lights emerged from the ground and he was paralyzed. He screamed in his mind, unheard by the rest. The elder elf approached him with a painfully kind smile and spoke in soft tones. He told Conri to calm down, to come and join them. He assured the boy that it would be safe to live with his clan that he didn't had to suffer anymore.

Conri didn't feel the moisture in his amber eyes, but rather felt a hot tightness in his guts. The feeling only intensified when the old elf touched his cheek in a loving manner. Starved for any human interaction, he howled at the touch, desperate to lean in and feel more. Having realized his need, the elf broke the paralysis glyph and opened his arms to the young boy. When Conri's human hands gripped the soft robes, his tears turned into uncontrollable sobs to streams.

He hadn't felt more human wrapped tightly with the arms of an elf in years. Like a missing piece of himself was fitted right back in, he slowly lifted his head and touched first his own ears then the elder man's. Seeing the elf nod a lot of things began to make sense. 

Conri, age nine and a half, half-human half-elf, full werewolf walked out of the cave with his paw tightly clasped in his new keeper's hand.

*

When his twelfth name day came and past him by, Conri had no qualms about it being forgotten. The elves in the clan were kind and nice to him mostly but they too had kept their distance from him like the birds and the rabbits in the woods. With his enhanced hearing he had heard some elves call him the wild wolf, but some were less kind and named him the half-breed beast. At times he ignored, at other times he bared his teeth and growled at them.

He had lost home after two weeks with them to ever feel at home and he was uncertain of this new home for a while but all it took to bring his human heart out of its shell was a single word; Hello.

One small attempt at friendship initiated by the elven boy who found him in the woods, that's all he needed to feel like his fresh eight year old again. The boy who was brave enough to look past his feral side was named Mahanon Lavellan and he was mage, trained to be the keeper in the future. Conri was fascinated by this boy and his ability to grow branches out of dirt or create winds with his mind. He had heard of the mages back in his estate and he knew his only sister was one of them. That sister of his, he had never met because she had been older than him and shipped off to a circle before he was even born. From what he had understood, she had been the disgrace of the family and the least favourite. Before he was branded a disgrace and was left in the woods at least. Despite his father's condescending descriptions of hers Conri never thought his mage sister could be as bad as described.

He liked to think that she would have been like Lavellan, gentle, and smiling brightly as if all the happiness in the world was his and his only. As if it was his duty to spread the happiness to the less fortunate. Because it was offered so freely, Conri accepted the gift and began smiling himself. It was as if the sun had decided to shine once more and Conri had found a way out of the never ending night and its moon.

With Mahanon's and the keeper, Deshanna 's help, he learned to control the beast within. Soon he was able to keep his feral side in check even when the moon was glowing at its brightest. In his years with the elves, he not only grew in strength, but also in wisdom. As he joined Mahanon's lessons about the elves, he learned about his possible roots all the while training to better himself at every weapon he could get his hands onto. With his enthusiasm he charmed most of the clansmen and with the keeper's blessings after years of hardship he was accepted into the elven clan.

He officially dropped the name Trevelyan, he was no longer a part of that family and was ready to adopt his best friend's and the clan's name, Lavellan, once he had proven himself a true clansman to the elven folk. With this, once more he had gained a family. One that he would hold onto for as long as he can until that faithful day at the Conclave.

-*-

"We call it the Breach" said a soft voice and Conri jumped out of his skin. That did not happen very often, but then again neither did the sky tear itself open very often with the same coloured glow of his hand.

He hated talking to humans, especially the ones who considered themselves important. They were always so selfish and sounded so condescending even when they made small talk or tried to bargain with the Lavellan clan. They all reminded Conri of his self righteous -and hypocritical- father. He felt anger boiling up inside every time their Keeper forced them to converse with humans and to get both Mahanon and Conri to act civilized. Mahanon wasn't half bad at it but Conri, well there was reason other than his wolf blood that he got called 'the beast' in the clan. It seems that anger hadn't completely subsided over the relatively peaceful years he spent away from his other family.

Conri took a calming breath like he was told many times and managed to move away as graceful as possible without getting up. "What is it?" he asked the hooded woman who was massaging her wrist without breaking her gaze from the Breach.

"That's what we would have explained to you had you not escaped from the dungeon" she replied "What we don't know it why of all the people you are the one that survived and why you carry that mark on your hand"

"That... I don't know" he answered truthfully "I don't remember. I was at the conclave, then there were creature chasing me, a woman reaching out and then nothing. I woke up in your dungeon" The woman gave him a scrutinizing look under her hood. Before she could speak up, she was joined with the angry, short haired woman from the dungeon and about a dozen armed man, all pointing their weapons at him. Instead of attacking his kidnappers, Conri decided to rest where he sat. His left hand hurt still and he feared that if he pushed himself more than he already had, he would end up beheading the lot of them. That was not a mess he wanted to get into. "I suggest you do not try to restrain me again and I will hear you out. How is that?"

"You will do-" the angry woman began screaming but the hooded one stopped her easily. She was aware that something was not entirely human with Conri.

"It is alright, Cassandra. We need him"

"We do not have time for explanations, Leliana! He lifted and threw me away like some-" She was cut short a second time, this time by Conri.

"Like a small sack of potatoes. You know, I can do it again" He could see the anger raising in her guts.

"Both of you. Enough! Every one lower your weapons and take a step back." intercepted the hooded lady, "Could you tell us who you are?" Conri debated about giving his real name to these woman but he decided against it. That family hasn't been his for a very long time.

"Conri, of the Lavallen Dalish clan" he answered after a pause, "I am a hunter"

"You don't look dalish" answered Cassandra and Conri could hear the accusation in her tone.

"I was adopted" he replied and laughed until the pain in his hand returned. He lifted his hair from his ears, showing the slight but definitive sharpness to his ears. "In all seriousness, though I am a half blood and unlike my human parents, the Lavellan clan was able to accept a half human half something else as one of their own."

"I see" she said but she wasn't convinced. He would later have to contact them to confirm this. He didn't doubt that they were thinking about that too.

"Your turn. What is that thing in the sky?" he demanded before they could question him further. He was done being agitated for the day. So, apparently the whole conclave had exploded, killing everyone and leaving nothing but a giant rift in the place where the temple once stood. A rift which was somehow connected to the mark in his hand and was in the process of spreading and killing him; A rift into the demon world called the breach. A rift they expected him to help close because his hand glowed the same colour.

His head hurt. His hand throbbed with pain. His vision blurred. He was not taking this so well, that much was obvious to outsiders from the way his shoulders shook.  The breach part wasn't what got to Conri though. He remembered with crystal clarity when he left the clan to attend the Conclave; that the keeper had forced his first to attend with him. His first best friend and a brother; Mahanon Lavellan had been one of those killed among many others in the explosion that claimed thousands of lives.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone. After a long while I decided to begin a new story line for DA:I and I am attempting a plot with a short tempered werewolf Inquisitor. This will take some time to update but I'll work as fast as possible and update the tags as well.  
> Please let me know what you think so far!


End file.
